Wood flooring-tile



(No Model.)

0. E. RIDER.

WOOD FLOORING TILE;

Patented June 23, 1885;.

Fig. 3. ,g

all A 440 WIQPJVESSES N PUERS. Phntulilhographar. Wuhinglnn. a. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIcE.

CHARLES E. RIDER, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK.

WOOD FLOORING-TILE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 320,698, dated June 23, 1885.

Application filed December 19, 1884.

T 0 M5 whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1 CHARLES E. RIDER, of the city of Rochester, county of Monroe, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in \Vood Flooring- Tiles, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying draw- Ings.

I My invention relates to wooden floors, and the novel features in which it consists are particularly specified in the annexed claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view'of the form of block used in the composition of the tile. Fig. 2 is a -plan view of a tile of twenty-five blocks, the nine central blocks being removed so as to show the keys in position. Fig. 3 is an edge view of the tile represented in Fig. 2. The parts which enter into combination to produce my improved tile are described as follows:

The block A is a prismatic piece of wood so disposed that the end of the grain becomes the wearing-surface. This surface may be square, oblong, rhombic, or rhomboidal. The block has a horizontal groove on each of its four vertical sides of suitable dimensions, and set a suitable distance from the wearing-surface. These four grooves are so disposed that two of them, running parallel with each other and on opposite sides of the block, lie substantially in the same plane, and wholly above or below the other two grooves, (which are also in the same plane with each other,) so as to allow keys or tongues, for whose reception they are designed, to cross one another.

Thekeys a and b and tongues c are of wood or other suitable material, are about as long as the corresponding side of the tile, and of such dimensions in other respects as to fill the spaces designed to receive them.

To assemble the blocks to form a tile of, say, twenty-five blocks, as illustrated in Fig. 2, I proceed as follows: I first place the lower horizontal row of blocks (see Fig. 2) in position, care being taken that the uppermost grooves are laid vertical, and the lower grooves horizontal. Into the grooves along the upper edge of this row of blocks I insert a tongue or key, b. A second row of blocks is added and a second key b, and so on until the whole nunr ber of blocks A and keys I) are in position.

(No model Into the slots lying at an angle to the keys already inserted I then enter the keys at and drive them into position, (see a a, Fig. 3.) Up to this point no glue or cement is used. I then place glue or cement in the grooves presented all around the edges of the assemblage and insert the tongues c.

It is obvious that various modifications in the order and method of assembling are possible, that a number of blocks greater or less than that shown in my illustration may be used, and that the surface of the tile may be square, oblong, rhonlbic, or i'homboidal, according to the kind of blocks employed in its composition. These tiles may be laid with tongues inserted into grooves cut in the edges thereof, preferably in aplane below that of the keys I), or they may be laid without tongues. In either case I prefer to nail them to the foundation-floor with headless steel wire nails driven through a few of the'peripheral blocks of a tile.

The principal advantage of my improvement lies herein: first, thatI am thus enabled to form tiles or sections of convenient size for polishing in the shop and for transportation,

and, second, that the keys a and b and tongues c prevent in dry weather the contraction of the tile as a whole, and cause the inevitable shrinkage to show itself by inconsidcrable openings around each block.

I am aware that the combination of the blocks A with the keysa and bis not new.

I claim- 1. The combination of the grooved blocks A A and keys at and b with the tongue 0, cc mented into the peripheral groove of the assemblage, substantially as described, and for the purposes set forth.

2. As anew article of manufacture, a portable wooden tilc, consisting of the grooved wooden blocks A A, held in position by the keys to and b and tongues o, the last named being cemented to the peripheral blocks in a groove around the tile, substantially as described, and for the purposes set forth.

CHARLES E. RIDER.

W'itncsses:

HENRY M. STILWELL, HENRY BEIsHEIM. 

